While that sucks, I am neither surprised nor upset. Dish is still cheaper than cable, and, as you pointed out, offers a much better equipment. If you want a good experience, FIOS with Tivo is about the best out there from what I hear. If only Verizon hadn't sold my market to Frontier!

Ted

If FIOS was in my area I would be there. My R5000-HD even works with the FIOS equipment so if I could I would for sure.

Quick question about the 722k. I have a dish installer coming up pretty quick to install one of these (new setup). I plan on having it service my HDTV (via HDMI) and a SDTV in another room (via composite RCA). Will I only need one coax from the sat to where my 722 is or two? The only reason I ask this is because looking at a 722 schematic it seems there are two coax inputs on the back. I think I might be screwed if it does require two.

If I have to power this unit off (like turn off the surge protector it is connected to) does it lose any settings? I know if I turn it off every night getting guide updates will be a hassle, but I was just curious.

If I have to power this unit off (like turn off the surge protector it is connected to) does it lose any settings? I know if I turn it off every night getting guide updates will be a hassle, but I was just curious.

It won't lose anything, but it's not just the guide updates but other software updates you don't want to miss. Also, why go through the reset every day? Personally, I'd have to have a very compelling reason to do so.

The power situation where I'm at can be a little volatile at times. I like to be able to cut my equipment off from the grid if necessary and it really bothers me if I have systems that don't have battery backed settings.

The power situation where I'm at can be a little volatile at times. I like to be able to cut my equipment off from the grid if necessary and it really bothers me if I have systems that don't have battery backed settings.

It's not battery backup. It's essentially a computer, so the settings are all basically in a bios or on the hard drive and when it resets you're back to normal.

Does the 722k auto record? For some reason I can press rewind when I watch live TV for as long as I've been watching the channel (for what seems to like one hour). Odd that pressing pause on live tv doesn't work (but I can rewind to that point). Pausing "old" programming works.

Even odder is that the HDD light isn't on when it is doing this, only when recording shows I scheduled.

Does the 722k auto record? For some reason I can press rewind when I watch live TV for as long as I've been watching the channel (for what seems to like one hour). Odd that pressing pause on live tv doesn't work (but I can rewind to that point). Pausing "old" programming works.

Even odder is that the HDD light isn't on when it is doing this, only when recording shows I scheduled.

When watching live, it is keeping what's on your channel in a buffer which is essentially recording but the light is not on as that is to indicate you have an actual recording going. You can pause it while watching live unless you have used up the buffer completely (not sure what the length is - it may be an hour). The only time it won't pause is if you have had it on pause for a long time and the limit is reached or if you rewind and have used up the limit. If that's not the case then something is wrong. Try turning to a channel and put it on pause right away or after a few minutes. If it doesn't pause, then there is a problem.

Strange things happened on the way to market for this receiver. During the long beta period, it behaved much like a 722K. It had two satellite tuners and two OTA tuners (with the extra cost module), and it serviced two TVs just like a 722K. When it was finally released, it's being sold as a "solo" receiver. So you get the benefit of PIP and recording preferentially from the formerly-named TV2 tuner, but you don't get a different output on the formerly-named TV2 outputs. That's until you connect to it with a Slingbox, and then it becomes more like a duo receiver. I have no idea if this behavior will be changed in the future.

So they want to force you to buy a slingbox to be able to watch on a 2nd TV ...

Can the 2nd TV watched this way (with the additional Slingbox) be in HD? That will be a step above what we can do with the 722 ... However, will I be able to access all DVR features in the 2nd room (like adding things to record etc)?

When the installer was hooking everything up, he asked if I had a network connection near the HT area. I told him no, so he went ahead and hooked up a power line adapter at my router and plugged the 722k into an outlet for instant network connection (for free - no charge for the adapter, etc.).

A couple things - you cannot use a surge protector or UPS for the 722k for this to work, the 722k has to be plugged directly into the wall. It has the network capability inside the unit; you do not have to use the ethernet plug on the back of the box. Just plug the power cord into the wall.

Being very ignorant about these things, I guess my question is: Can I get another adapter (for instance, the one shown in the Amazon link) and also hook up my BR player, etc., to my network that way? Or does this adapter they installed only work with my 722k? That is what the installer said, but I am sure we all know that what they say isn't always correct. I did not get any packaging or documentation with it.

Does TV2 work with a HD Tuner ? I bought a HDTV tuner for my bedroom and I am unable to tune from the coaxial input coming for the TV2. Should I need an analog tuner to tune to the output of TV2 ? It feels backward to buy an analog tuner to feed into a HD TV. Thanks for help.

Does TV2 work with a HD Tuner ? I bought a HDTV tuner for my bedroom and I am unable to tune from the coaxial input coming for the TV2. Should I need an analog tuner to tune to the output of TV2 ? It feels backward to buy an analog tuner to feed into a HD TV. Thanks for help.

What type of TV do you have for TV2 that you had to buy a separate tuner? Asking because my LCD accepts the coax since the tuner is ATSC/NTSC.

You have some alternatives. If you have a VCR, you can use the input from it and then connect S-Video or composite to your TV. You can run an HDMI cable from your receiver to the second TV, but you will only get what is playing on TV1, but it will be HD.

I have a ViP 722 receiver. If I hook up an external hard drive, pay the $40 to activate it, I know I can move recorded content to the external hd.

Question 1: If I were to copy an .avi file to the external hd from my computer, move the external hd to the ViP receiver, would I be able to watch the .avi file? Basically, may I use the ViP receiver with an external hd as a media server? I understand the file system is extfs but am unsure what audio/video codecs the ViP722 will play.

Question 2: I have 3 HD TV in my house. The ViP 722 plays HD to one of the TVs. How much is it going to cost me to get HD to my other 2 TVs? Is it cheaper go cable? What about AT&T's service?

To my knowledge, nobody has figured out the encryption on the Dish EHD, so watching videos on a PC is out of the question. That is precisely what the encryption was designed to prevent.

As for loading the EHD with externally generated non-encrypted content, I haven't heard of anybody doing that either. There is a lot of metadata (besides the file system itself) external to the video file that needs to be filled in. While it seems plausible to me at least that this could be done, and the receiver might play back unencrypted content, nobody has bothered to reverse engineer all that metadata and get it to work.

As for feeding HD to 3 HDTVs, the cheapest way to do this would be to split the outputs from TV1 and feed them (possibly with amplification) to all 3 TVs. Note that all outputs are "live" simultaneously, and many people do this for two TVs simply by feeding HDMI to one and component to the other.

Did you mean 3 separately controllable HD feeds? The cheapest HD receiver is the 211k, which will add $7/mo each to your account. For an additional one-time $40 fee, you can add an EHD to any number of 211/411/211k's and turn them into a DVR. Or you could do as I did and get an additional pair of VIP612 DVR receivers at $10/mo each.

Note that the EHD for a 722 is compatible with the 612/622/722/722k receivers, so you could move your recordings around among them. The EHD for the 211 is called a "DVR Conversion" and uses a different format.

I have my ViP 722 for the DVR. The 211K might be what I need since DVR is not important on the other two TVs.

That's what I thought too. It turned out I really missed pausing live TV on the other receivers. Fortunately that decision was reversible. All you have to do is later buy an external hard drive for the 211 and pay the $40 (per household not TV) and it becomes a DVR. Problem solved.

I scheduled 3 sequential programs to record on the same channel. Each one is set to start 1 minute early & end 3 minutes late, which is the default setting on my DVR. This should mean that the first program would use tuner #1, the second program tuner #2 and the third program tuner #1. The tuners would have to alternate in order to accommodate the overlapping times.

But this does not happen. The DVR changes the start & stop times and records all 3 programs on the same tuner. IOW it eliminates the overlapping times & assumes the programs will start/stop exactly on time. In one respect this makes sense because it frees up the second tuner. But it also means you might not be able to delete the first program after watching it because it may contain the very first part of the second program, and so on. I added on 90 minutes to a couple programs & the DVR still overrode my choices.

I scheduled 3 sequential programs to record on the same channel. Each one is set to start 1 minute early & end 3 minutes late, which is the default setting on my DVR. This should mean that the first program would use tuner #1, the second program tuner #2 and the third program tuner #1. The tuners would have to alternate in order to accommodate the overlapping times.

But this does not happen. The DVR changes the start & stop times and records all 3 programs on the same tuner. IOW it eliminates the overlapping times & assumes the programs will start/stop exactly on time. In one respect this makes sense because it frees up the second tuner. But it also means you might not be able to delete the first program after watching it because it may contain the very first part of the second program, and so on. I added on 90 minutes to a couple programs & the DVR still overrode my choices.

Is there any way to force the DVR to alternate tuners?

Are you using single or dual mode? Are the recordings on the OTA connection? Do you have more than one program recording at the same time? Are you watching a live program during the recordings?

These are the things that could affect the overlap. If none of them apply, then you may have a defective unit.

I scheduled 3 sequential programs to record on the same channel. Each one is set to start 1 minute early & end 3 minutes late, which is the default setting on my DVR. This should mean that the first program would use tuner #1, the second program tuner #2 and the third program tuner #1. The tuners would have to alternate in order to accommodate the overlapping times.

But this does not happen. The DVR changes the start & stop times and records all 3 programs on the same tuner. IOW it eliminates the overlapping times & assumes the programs will start/stop exactly on time. In one respect this makes sense because it frees up the second tuner. But it also means you might not be able to delete the first program after watching it because it may contain the very first part of the second program, and so on. I added on 90 minutes to a couple programs & the DVR still overrode my choices.

Is there any way to force the DVR to alternate tuners?

I think it only tries to be "smart" if you leave it set to the default of 1 minute early, 3 minutes late. If you change the defaults and there's overlap, then it will force to the other tuner.

I think it only tries to be "smart" if you leave it set to the default of 1 minute early, 3 minutes late. If you change the defaults and there's overlap, then it will force to the other tuner.

I think.

Jeff

I was in single mode & using the OTA tuner(s). On Sunday the football game frequently runs over & affects the evening programs. I recorded 3 programs that followed football & added 60 minutes to each, not 90 as I mentioned earlier. That way I could watch & delete each one independently. I also recorded the news that followed just in case I needed the extra time. Immediately after scheduling I checked and my 60 minute extensions were wiped out. So I went & added 60 minutes back in, including to the news. The first 2 programs recorded as 1 hr programs & the third as a 2 hr program.

But I notice a similar pattern when using the sat tuners. If I record 2 or 3 sequential programs on the same channel the DVR uses the same tuner & wipes out the default of 1 minute early & 3 minutes late. I figured the tuners would alternate in order to handle the overlap, which is what my Comcast DVR used to do.

I can't say with absolute certainty that this happens all the time because I just got DISH a couple weeks ago & am still learning the details. In one way it's nice that the DVR streamlines things & uses one tuner, thus freeing up a tuner. But it also defeats the default of 1 minute early & 3 minutes late that DISH incorporates.

FWIW, last Sunday I also set up a manual timer recording on a sat tuner that covered the 3 programs plus an extra 1.5 hrs. This worked, but you cannot watch & delete an individual program. But as long as I got it all my wife will be happy!